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Xia Empire
'- The People' The people of the mysterious Xia Empire are a race of elves who call themselves Niirai. These Niirai have a striking similarity in appearance to humans, except for their distinctive long pointy ears, prominent eyebrows, and their lithe frames. Their skin tone is predominantly pale white with a subtle tint of yellow. Niirai are slightly taller compared to humans, standing tall at an average height of 180 centimetres (70.8 inches). Culturally, both men and female prefer longer hair. Their hair colours are blond, brown, black, and rarely red or white. '- Culture' Folklore & Superstitions: Culturally, the Niirai elves have always been a superstitious people. They have legends of woodland and sea spirits who punish any who defile them, and reward those who nurture and protect them, and as such, are more inclined to preserve the natural environment rather than exploit and ravage it fully and anger their guardians. They believe that the lush plains and vibrant forests are as much dependant on the Niirai, as the Niirai are on them, and there is an ancient balance that needs to be maintained, dictated by the old gods to keep both powers in a state of perfect harmony. They have a vast number of evil and patron spirits who invade the lives of the common folk for reasons either good or bad. Almost any, what is considered a sinful act, has a spirit which will haunt the sinner until they have atoned for their sin. Culturally, it is considered a tremendous sin to be married to a woman and sleep with another, with the man's wife passing away, never knowing her man never truly loved her, until that fact was revealed to her in the afterlife. It is believed that a vengeful spirit will then haunt the both of them, causing them nightmares, close cases of injury, and bad luck, until they become stressed out enough to cancel their sinful relationship and part ways for ever. Family is extremely important in Niirai society, and not aiding one's family, or causing them harm, is considered a sinful act as well. For example: A poor family has two children. One of two brothers finds treasure in the woods and returns home to tell his family of the find. He is too young and weak to drag it home alone, and they plan to do it together the next day. It was the younger child's find, and the treasure and what to do with it were his choice. All though more often than not, those choices were heavily influenced by parents if such scenarios were encountered by children, culturally though, it is considered to be property of the finder. However, the older brother had not had luck finding work to earn money and pay for his own share of family expenses yet, and the parents have been on his case constantly, making him rather resentful. The older brother decides to take the treasure during the night alone, and run away with his newfound wealth. When the rest of the family find out, they curse his name while the older child begins a lavish lifestyle, buys all the nice clothes, gets a decent house, and as such is able to get much better work much easier because people will automatically think he comes from a successful family with a reliable background. All well and good concerning the lad, but his family has been wronged and left in the dust, and they have left him with a curse. No matter how much wealth he ever acquires, it will always seemingly vanish. Not literally, but in the sense of: he will live far beyond what he can afford, getting bad drinking habits, smoking addictive expensive illegal substances, being caught doing such and having to pay expensive fines, whoring around, and indulging in gambling he will never be lucky to win anything substantial in, until his new friends and superiors find it insulting to be with such a wreck, loosing friends, loosing his job, loosing grace, and eventually drying up financially and turning in to a bum. Niirai legends have as many evil as well as good spirits, curses and miracles, and they are as numerous as their gods and goddesses. Magic: They are very accepting of magic and its use for the greater good. Being able to wield the magical elements of this world is, unlike in some other places around the world, seen as a gift and a blessing. Such individuals are rather rare, with only 1 in a 100 Niirai possessing any such ability, let alone have the strength, knowledge, and willpower to put it to good use. Mage circles are constantly on the lookout to locate these promising individuals and do their very best to guide them, attempt to evolve their abilities to their highest potential, and put their talents to good use. Legend says, that the Niirai elves were once all gifted with magic and could bend reality to their will, but were cast down and stripped of their abilities by their angry and insulted gods, because they had no respect for it and took it for granted, and were beginning to think they themselves were godlike. Clothing and general appearance: ' Niirai value appearance and reputation above much anything else in their society. To be un-presentable in public and be mocked, or be humiliated by another in public with their words or actions, is the greatest insult to an individual. This is referred to as ''loosing grace. Both the rich and the poor will do their very best to look their best. They will often wear jewellery around their neck, atop their heads, on their ears, around their wrist, arms, or even ankle. In the often case of people not being able to afford jewellery, they substitute gold and jewels with twigs, flowers, and leaves, taking on a more druidic appearance. They are very stylish when it comes to clothing and use it as a means to express themselves and send a message or boast a title, sometimes beyond reason, and will either dress in one extreme or the other. They will either wear very tight clothing to bring out their figure and features, or baggy gowns to hide it all completely. They will either have all their peaces of clothing of similar shades and matching colours to create a uniform appearance and boast fitting in and being productive, successful, if not wealthy, or wear clashing colours to stand out entirely to express their free unchained and enthusiastic soul, unburdened and heavily inclined at having a good time, for example. Whichever the case, they love their clothing adorned with slick trims and fancy patterns or symbolism. As elves go, their are naturally very beautiful physically as well, and take great pride in it. Though powdering one's face is not uncommon, Niirai prefer natural beauty to fake beauty. They go through great lengths to preserve their young natural beauty through their later stages of life by utilising any number of preservation techniques, such as applying ointments daily, or even using magic. '''Music: Niirai music is as varied as their individual fashion sense, but all music seems to stick around the same serene theme of their traditional string instruments such as the Koto, Taisho-goto, Erhu, Guzheng and Shamisen, the Wadaiko and Katsuzumi drums, and the Nohkam, Sho, Dizi, and Shakuhachi flutes, as well as the Gong. Food & Farming: The Niirai diet consists of mainly grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy products are common, with animal meat being rare and fish being more popular in coastal regions and along rivers. They eat 3 meals a day with snacks. Their first meal is in the morning after they get out of bed, the second larger meal is from around noon to mid afternoon, and their last minor meal is in the evening, some time around sunset. The composition of meals is governed by an all important balance of yin and yang foods and the proper amounts of fan and cai. Fan includes grains, such as rice, noodles, and dumplings. Cai includes cooked meats and vegetables. When Niirai eat, they do it communally. They do not each get their own plate, instead, they share food and all eat from a larger bowl. As such, there is no set limit on how much or how little one can eat, and no associated stigma of not eating all of your food and insulting the cook. This has resulted in the Niirai having healthier eating habits, only eating until one has seen fit, and saving the rest for others or for another time. It is because of this that Niirai are very rarely fat, and are generally described as fit or slim. Having a stock of animals to breed, fatten, and then slaughter for their meat is often times a far too costly and unreliable means of producing food for the average peasant. The common folk usually do not have neither the manpower nor the means to keep larger livestock constantly on watch and safe from the many exquisite predators prowling this region of the world, besides which, they would need to grow enough grain to use to feed their livestock through droughts and monsoons, which are unfit conditions to herd livestock in to open fields. It is much cheaper and low risk to grow your food on a farm, or to catch an animal or fish yourself. Especially if your crop is accustomed to lots of water, like rice, for example. As such, farmers tend to have very few animals, usually cows or a donkey, and use them to pull carts, plough fields, or turn mills. Dairy products are rather popular however, especially in elevated places away from rivers where fish are rare and people crave for greater food variation. Such areas also enjoy adding more spices to their meals, sometimes beyond what a low-lander would consider edible. Behaviour: The Niirai like to think of themselves as very honourable and upstanding people, protectors of the world, patrons of only the most just and holy, and the favourites of all the divines. In short, they are quite pompous. They have lots of cultural stigmas to keep them behaving and dressed at their very best when in public, and they consider anyone who is below their line of acceptability or is disregarding the cultural rules of their society as little less than a barbarian. They like to be charitable however, and consider charity as a virtue. They will often times attempt to aid and civilise any misguided soul they encounter, if they are able. They will strive to always keep their word and be polite, both to keep grace and to not to offend the other. If confronted by something or someone they are uncomfortable with, they will more likely dodge and ignore the situation or person with as few words as possible and simply leave rather than escalate things, unless their pride or honour has been insulted, or if they are intoxicated. When it comes to other people, they value family the most, with their friends coming in close second, and their nation taking third place. Niirai society is very tight nit, and having the right connections is everything. Family and friends are a Niirai's gateway in to the world. They are very slow to trust outsiders however, and it is rather hard for an outsider to get very far in Niirai society with its many many seemingly invisible cultural rules and stigmas, and them unknowingly braking them all the time. They cannot imagine living anywhere but within their parent nation because of this, which is why they view it as the very best possible option in the world to call home, and are as such very patriotic as well as nationalistic.